Grass fire destroys barn, burns 500 acres southeast of Kiowa

This is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated. Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated.

Please enable Javascript to watch this video

ELBERT COUNTY, Colo. -- Fire crews from several departments responded to a grass fire that charred hundreds of acres southeast of Kiowa on Saturday afternoon.

The fire broke out about 1 p.m. at the Ben Lomond Gun Club range in the 24000 block of County Road 105 and spread to about 500 acres. It destroyed an unoccupied barn and threatened others, according to the Elbert County Sheriff’s Office and the Kiowa Fire Protection District.

The sheriff’s office posted on Facebook that residents in the area received a code red notification that alerted them of the situation. It took firefighters a few hours to put out the fire.

According to the sheriff’s office, some crews stayed on the scene late Saturday afternoon to mop up and keep hot spots from flaring up.

The sheriff's office said deputies believe the fire was started accidentally and the responsible parties have been located.